Japanese MMA promotions might be the competition that Dana White needs to worry about. Japan was and still is a hub for mixed martial arts. MMA in the Land of the Rising Sun became legal in the 1980s. And that was the time for Pancrase. Soon, Pride FC dominated the MMA game in Japan in the early 2000s. Even though it was initially run by the Yakuza, Pride FC managed to amass a huge crowd. Back in 2002, for PRIDE Shockwave, the promotion garnered an attendance of 91,107 at the National Stadium in Tokyo. To date, that’s the most attendance any MMA event has witnessed. But for now, the UFC head honcho has to be wary of RIZIN. But why would the boss of UFC, the biggest MMA promotion in the world, be wary of a regional MMA promotion? 

During the recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, the MMA journalist said, “For me, what’s probably the most disappointing, and this is a byproduct of the UFC getting so big, there’s just so little competition. Here in America, there’s just PFL. Overseas, there’s some promotions doing some things.” His guest, Josh Barnett, pointed out that RIZIN and KSW were also rising. And that’s when Helwani struck a chord. 

The famed MMA reporter seemed pretty impressed with RIZIN. He stated, “They just had like 47,000 people at their last event.” Well, Super RIZIN 4, held at Saitama Super Arena, drew an attendance of 43,965 to be exact. And before that, Super RIZIN 3 garnered an attendance of 48,117 people in the arena. Helwani confessed that he didn’t see the Japanese MMA resurgence coming. But Barnett’s story was a bit different. 

The former MMA star said, “At the level of RIZIN, yes. I could easily have seen this happening. However, it’s how there used to be also Pancrase doing 10,000-seat arena, Shooto doing 5,000-seat arenas, Deep doing 5,000-10,000 seat arenas every now, you know. But that is all gone. That’s still something that has a lot of knock-on effects to Japanese MMA. But Pancrase is still going on, Deep is still going on. There’s other smaller promotions like Gladiator and Grachan and whatever. And guys are getting fights, which is great. But there used to be these promotions that were able to bring much more foreign talent and have bigger shows. It’s just all either RIZIN, and then everything else is like way below.”

But the question still remains unanswered. Should Dana White be wary of RIZIN and other Japanese fight promotions? Not really. RIZIN and PRIDE FC cater only to the Japanese audience. However, the UFC has turned fairly global. While RIZIN and other Japanese promotions stay within the boundaries of the island country, UFC has hosted international events on multiple occasions. With the 6,000-mile gap between Japan and the USA, White wouldn’t worry too much about RIZIN as a competition. 

But that doesn’t mean Dana White wouldn’t collaborate with the Japanese MMA promotions. The founder of RIZIN, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, is a known associate of the UFC head honcho. Yes, the duo had a beef back in the 2000s. But now, they’re on friendly terms. And White would like to keep it that way. 

Dana White is open to getting more fighters from RIZIN

At UFC 310, White brought in a former RIZIN star, Kai Asakura, and gave him the opportunity to fight for the flyweight title against Alexandre Pantoja. Unfortunately, Asakura faced defeat in his UFC debut and title fight. But that didn’t steer White away from hiring more fighters from the Japanese MMA promotion. During the UFC 310 post-fight press conference, White said, “Yeah [I’m interested in signing other RIZIN fighters], we did it tonight. He had a good performance. I would love to do it. Obviously, having these up and coming Japanese fighters [is good]. We were just talking in my room, [Sakakibara] is saying, in Japan, all these young guys want to be the first one to win a world title in the UFC.”

The UFC head honcho knew that Japan had a rich history in martial arts. After all, it’s the birthplace of forms like Judo and Jiu-Jitsu. Weighing in on the rich history of the country, White continued, “So, that’s exciting. There’s such a rich history of MMA in Japan, and some of the best days of my life was our rivalry with PRIDE. That was a really fun time in my life, and his too, we were talking about it. So the answer is yes, to all of that. I would love to do a fight night there too.”

But what do you think? Will RIZIN be big enough to worry Dana White? Or will RIZIN and UFC continue to rise together with a collaboration like no other? Drop down to the comments below and let us know what you think.